Structural & Geological Features and Storage Quality of Cement Steel Silo

The structure principle of steel silo is completely different from the concept of traditional warehouse. The best ratio of height to diameter of steel silo is about 1:1; the diameter is 10m-80m. It is a new concept of load storage mode, so the steel silo is a great invention for the concentrate storage and use of bulk cement, which can not only solve the questions of safe storage of cement or fly ash in the off-season and short supply in hot season, but also meet the requirements of energy saving and emission reducing and environmental protection of the enterprises, resulting in a very prominent effect. In the process of using cement clinker and fly ash in power plant, it can ensure the safe storage of high-level seal. By extending the storage time and reducing storage losses and areas, it will save a lot of investment and also create more economic benefits for the enterprises. 

For production requirements and material usage of steel silo, because the ground completely bears the load of the silo, in addition to treatment of silo foundation, the accumulated cement just brings about equilibrium pressure, the bottom of the silo doesn’t need special treatment.

For quicksand geology, underground water level is less than 2m. If building a conventional silo, we must build gravel pile first. While the construction of large steel silo, we must adopt special foundation. Seen from quicksand foundation, we can find that if the edge foundation of the silo is the outer tangential positions, the load will increase, and then the quicksand begins centripetal flow. Therefore, the moisture and air gap in quicksand will be expelled with the pressure’s increasing. The centripetally flowing quicksand not only produces increased buoyancy, and its density is increased, too. The dynamic reaction of quicksand can help save the overall investment that is only equivalent to the 1/7 cost of conventional silo construction, while the storage capacity is 26 times larger than that of the total capacity of conventional silo. Been Experiencing for more than 3 years, we find it increases 60mm in the peak period of river water and rainy season, but in the process, there is no tilt phenomenon due to 1 acre of area of the silo bottom. 

1. For cement steel silo, the inlet cement is continuously input along inclined plane and overlaid, which will form uniform and even distribution of cement into the silo at different times. Before the unloading, through the fan-shaped gasification tube at the bottom of the silo, according to the order of alternate gas pouring, the high density deposition of cement will be mixed with gas in gas permeability and changed into the fluidized state, and then will be unloaded through a conveying tube and enter the silo packing silo or bulk car. Before and after storage the physical properties of cement are basically the same. The initial setting time of cement a bit increases, the flexural strength also decrease slightly. And the compressive strength of 28d increased by 0.17MPa. All these indicate that the storage effect of cement steel silo is ideal.

2. For cement, sealed storage bags can only prolong the preservation period of cement to 3 months, while because the steel silo has large storage section and good homogenization effect, with the increase of storage time and storage density of cement and close air isolation of steel silo wall that is basically a vacuum seal, its sealing effect is much better than that of the storage modes, for example, brick structure of warehouse and sealed bag. 

According to the test, cement stored for more than 2 years, in addition to slight extension of the setting time and slight decrease of the flexural strength, its compressive strength is slightly improved with no caking phenomenon. Thus, the good sealing performance of cement steel silo is the best choice for a long-term storage of cement. 

Conclusion

1. Steel silo can ensure the quality of cement storage. 

2. The different enterprises can adopt different sizes and numbers of silos to ensure continuous production equipments and cheaply meet the requirements of the peak season sales and maximize the benefits. 

3. For construction, the investment is very low and the speed is very quick, which can solve the off-season storage problem in a short time. 

4. The storage cost is low, and there is no need for any protection cost, this can save the cost of packaging and storage links. 

5. A long lifespan in use. The silo stored for 15 years can work without rust treatment. There is no obvious corrosion phenomenon. If the rust prevention and maintenance is necessarily done one time each 10 years, the silo will be used for 50 years without doubts. 

6. The diameter ratio is larger. This means that it would not tilt and sink. Even if the earthquake happens, it is safer than smaller round silo. 

7. The silo can apply to all kinds of geological conditions, and the pneumatic conveying makes cement far away from the workshop. This is convenient for sales.

8. We can directly use packaging machine for packing and car loading. The cement quality is stable. As long as the qualified rate of silo loading can reach more than 70%, we can ensure 100% qualified rate.